Saturday, 4 September 2010

Given the determination of Bristol City Council to flog off large amounts of our green spaces to developers people may be interested the longstanding and continuing opposition of Bristol Green Party to this sell-off. No other political party takes this stand. This policy (click on link above), which I co-wrote with Pete Goodwin, details why we need to genuinely value all our parks and green spaces. Green spaces have long been listed by both locals and visitors as in their top three 'best things about Bristol'.

2 comments:

We must all oppose the sell off of green land. Unused commercial and industrial sites must be redeveloped first before green land is destroyed. And the city is full of such sites. Well over a million square foot of office space is long term empty in the city centre alone. Huge unlettable spaces built in the 60s to 80s. Large industrial sites like the Hamlet site in Ashton, the Astra Zeneca site in severnside (80 acres). Similar places all across the city.

The reality is that the sale of green spaces is all about two things. First, the increase in the sale value of green land given permission for development. The council treats this as free money, but you can only get it once. The sell off is shortsighted and against our long term interests.

Second, developers like to built from scratch on green land as it is the cheapest way to build. But they throw up cheap shit that looks good for 10 years only and then is left empty as an eyesore. They then say they can't redevelop such sites as it is too expensive and they need more fresh green space. That's why the centre is full of these empty or nearly empty office blocks.

It is not enough to oppose the sale of the most popular green sites (and I welcome all such campaigns and wish the best of luck to all those involved). We must oppose the whole policy.